110 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



the snow and make a very good protection. I do not know but 

 what good begasse would lie down more closely. 



Mr. Harris: It is a great deal better to cut those cornstalks 

 in pieces an- inch long than to put them on the full length of the 

 stalks. My son cuts up his fodder for the cows, and what the 

 cows will not eat he uses for mulch. 



Mr. CoUman, (Iowa): All the strawberries I ever covered 

 were covered with cornstalks. It is very quickly put on and 

 very quickly taken off in the spring. We do not have much 

 hay to put on, and corn fodder is much cheaper. 



Dr. Frisselle: There is one other material that has been 

 used for years in the East, and that is tanbark. I know a man 

 who used it. He put it on plentifully between the rows, and it 

 was clean in the rows, and he had a most magnificent crop; I 

 never saw a more magnificent crop. 



Secretary Latham: For several years I covered my straw- 

 berries in the fall with cornstalks. It is not much trouble to 

 lay them along in the row, just enough to partially hide the 

 vines, and in the spring you do not have to take them off. By 

 the time the crop is gathered, they are rotted and out of the 

 way. There is no foul seed connected with the use of them, and 

 they seem to be a sufficient mulch for the purpose. They can 

 be put on early in the season, and they afford the necessary 

 protection against severe frost in the fall. I do not know 

 whether it would be practicable on a large scale. 



IMPROVING STRAWBERRY VARIETIES BY SELECTION. 



While the following will apply to fruits of all kinds, it is specially 

 effective with the strawberry. There is no other fruit so susceptible 

 to improvement and none so variable and liable to run down under 

 neglect. 



To improve them one should follow the course pursued by suc- 

 cessful breeders of fine stock and poultry— breed up by selecting- the 

 most perfect individuals to raise from. Just before the berries ripen, 

 go yourself over the best rows of each variety and carefully select 

 5'oung plants conspicuous for vigor, earliness (if earliness is of value 

 to you), productiveness with general excellence and symmetry of 

 fruit. Pull all fruit and blooms from those plants at once. Then 

 with a garden trowel remove as large a clod as practicable, contain- 

 ing the plant and set in rich soil well prepared, each variety separ- 

 ate, of course. From these well cultivated, raise plants to set your 

 young fields the coming year; and from the fields thus set, again 

 likewise select the best, and so on foi-ever. 



The good effects of this plan will soon be manifest. It cannot 

 change bad varieties into good ones; but it will surely make good 

 varieties better. Having tested it for years, I can speak from expe- 

 rience. When it is not practicable to remove the selected plants, 

 they can be marked with stakes and left in the fields; but great care 

 will be required to keep the young plants from running among and 

 rnixingwith others. — The Western Garden. 



